Tag Archives: walk🚶🏻
quad gang
This post is about a 10km walk from Catalzeytin to Samanci. It involved a late start and (almost) no place to sleep. The sky had cleared up overnight. But at 11:00 in the morning it was still raining. I decided to stay put a little longer and see if I could wait it out. My […]
go back
This post is about a 13km walk from Türkeli to Catalzeytin. It rained so heavily that I did something I rarely ever do – I turned around. Sinan’s guesthouse was booked today, so I couldn’t stay. This was bad because I needed to rest, and because I would have liked to spend more time with […]
the Austrian
This post is about an 18km walk from Doganli to Türkeli. First I was awoken by a hedgehog, then by the prayer call. In the end I met an Ösi. At night, a hedgehog came to visit. Or rather: it seemed like the hedgehog was a regular guest in the saw mill, and my presence […]
lion’s milk
This post is about a 23km walk from Ayancik to Doganli. I ended up staying in a sawmill where some gentlemen were having a drink. My legs weren’t ready to leave. They wanted to stay. They reminded me of it every time I walked up the stairs. How could they be so heavy? But the […]
angry water
This post is about a 23km walk from Gebelit to Ayancik. I saw some of the destruction left behind by the flood two months earlier. I don’t often remember my dreams, but tonight I did. In my dream I was in a building with a glass dome, and there was a tornado outside. So I […]
stuffed
This post is about a 21km walk from Sarikum to Gebelit. I made a dog friend and found one of the best camping spots ever. The night had been surprisingly quiet. It doesn’t happen often that I manage to pick a good camping spot, but this time I did. Sure, there were a few birds […]
the wrong road
This post is about a 15km walk from Akliman to Sarikum. It started out easy, but then I made a mistake and took the wrong road. I woke up from a sound. At first I thought it was traffic, but it turned out to be the sound of rain. When I went downstairs for breakfast, […]
more than nothing
This post is about an 11km walk from Sinop to Akliman. It was my first day of walking in almost two years, and I wasn’t just out of shape. My friends made kuymak for breakfast, a cheese dish from the area of Trabzon. We drank tea and looked out the window, and I tried to […]
enjoy
When I step outside to breathe the morning air, Korsan, the dog, is still asleep. Or maybe he just doesn’t want to get up because two of his friends are resting on top of him. Mustafa has prepared breakfast: fried eggplant, zucchini, and potato, toasted bread, fresh tomatoes, strawberry jam, honey, cheese, boiled eggs, and […]
the commander
Staying in Lala felt like staying with a whole village rather than a single family. Everyone knew each other, everyone was always visiting the others’ homes, and the meals were lively gatherings. Also, it was the weekend, and those who lived in the city had returned to the village to spend time with their families. […]
Lala
When I leave Gerze, I notice a few buildings that look like they might be old. Or maybe they’ve just been reconstructed. One of them is a large, empty villa that seems like it might get razed soon. Destroyed, as my friend Hairullah from Bafra would put it with a sweeping gesture. The road rolls […]
winding up
I wake up in the mosque, and because mosques usually don’t have any heating I burrow myself deeper in the sleeping bag and close my eyes again. When I finally leave, the sun is out and the road goes winding up the hills. It’s about five kilometers to the actual village of Yenikent, but since […]
the existence of Yenikent
Nobody in Yakakent seemed to know Yenikent. Where are you going? they would ask me, and when they heard that I was planning to go to Yenikent, they would stare into space. Yenikent, right! There was a place by that name, somewhere. Actually, Yenikent isn’t that far from Yakakent. If you go by car it’s […]
rain and spring invisible
Finally, a small family-owned guesthouse! I found it last night with the help of the owners of the restaurant where I was having dinner. It was on the fourth floor of an apartment building, and the owners lived two floors down from it. It was simple and clean. I wake up feeling refreshed. I really […]
my leaves
Back to the highway. Back to the noise, back to the sight of cars and trucks thundering in my direction. One thing is different from before Samsun, though: there is considerably less traffic here. The main artery connecting Istanbul and Ankara with the Black Sea region has left the coastline and taken much of the […]
dark side of the planet
The night was cold and wet. For some time, there was a dog somewhere in the distance that decided to have a barking match with a pack of jackals. The prayer calls in the morning sounded like ghosts, again. The inside of my sleeping bag was pretty cozy, though. The difficult part is always getting […]
empty homes
I wake up in a large hotel bed, white linens and all. I brush my teeth and go down to have breakfast. While I’m stuffing myself with potatoes and omelette and casserole and bread and cake and mint tea, I feel very conscious of my scruffy looks and of my plan to walk home. Then […]
a different coast
So this is what the whole Black Sea coast could have been like? Could have. Would have. Should have. Remember how the highway from the Georgian border almost all the way to Samsun was running basically always right next to the water? Well, not here. Here, in the north of Samsun, traffic is being confined […]
i (heart) military zones
Just after leaving the hotel, I take a photo of a flyover. Upon which I hear a whistle. Upon which a heavily armed guy in uniform tells me to prepare to be interrogated. So I sit down on my plastic chair and drink some water. It’s a hot day. After a while another uniformed man […]
I am the police
It’s a little less than 30km to Tekkeköy. And then another twenty or so to Samsun. I feel tired, so I tell myself that I don’t want any adventures today. No dogs. No dancing. No getting lost on country roads. The first few hours I stay on the highway. It is loud. During lunch I […]